“You know how it goes up and down. One moment you see possibilities and the next only obstacles.”
“Sounds like a good description of life.”
“And of work, unfortunately. Earlier today I was feeling discouraged.”
“You’re thinking the worst.”
“I’d rather not say that.”
“There’s hope,” she said. “You’ve said so yourself several times before.”
“There’s hope in the sense that this isn’t a classic disappearance where a child goes missing from a playground and we think that some bastard’s taken her. In those cases there’s rarely any hope. We seldom find the child, unless a psychopath confesses and takes us to the grave.”
“But here that’s not the case.”
“No. What we have here doesn’t follow the typical pattern. There may be hope. Or else something worse than we’ve ever seen.”
“Don’t say that,” she said. “Or maybe you need to.”
He didn’t answer.
“You should speak to somebody-other than your fellow detectives on the force.”
“Yeah. Maybe you’re right.”
“Well. I’m listening.”
“But there’s something else as well.” He propped himself up on one elbow. “There’s a great loneliness that rests over this case. It’s taken a long time to find out her name and where she lived, and to get the suspicions about a missing child confirmed. If it hadn’t been for an old lady, we would still be fumbling around looking for a viable lead. You know what I mean? An enormous loneliness. We have her name but we still don’t know more than a few small fragments about her past.”
“More is sure to come in now that you’ve gone out with it in such a big way, with a public appeal and the APB or whatever you call it.”
“Yeah, that’s true. Or is it? That’s what I mean. That awful loneliness that seemed to surround her life.”
“Yes.”
“No one to speak to. You know? Like you and I are speaking now.”
“Like you and I,” she repeated. For how much longer? she thought. I can’t bring it up now. It’s impossible and he knows it, if he’s thinking about it. He looks more vulnerable than I’ve ever seen him. Younger, and it’s not just the hair. It’s not the right time for an ultimatum. Maybe in an hour. Or two days.
She raised her arm and ran her hand through his hair.
“How long are you going to let that grow?”
“It’s growing all the time.”
“Just no ponytail. It doesn’t suit you.”
“Okay.”
“The only man I ever thought looked good in a ponytail was your colleague from London.”
“Macdonald.”
“Are you in touch with him at all, by the way?”
“Macdonald?”
She nodded. She had taken her hand away from his hair.
“Just the odd postcard. I might give him a call. Maybe he can give me some advice.”
“Cross-border cooperation.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Winter said, and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. He twisted his body and looked back at her. “Angela.”
“Yes?”
“We found out that Helene may have spent a short time at Lillhagen for depression.”
“Oh.”
“One of my men looked through the records, and it could be her. Under another name. Then she was discharged and never came back.”
“That’s common nowadays,” Angela said.
“That they don’t come back?”
“You know that yourself. How things are now. The psychiatric hospitals are closing and people are being discharged and don’t come back because there’s nothing to come back to.”
The call came after the morning briefing. Winter took it in his office and he was prepared. He had expected something as early as yesterday, possibly even the day before, if he was lucky. They already knew about the orphanage, and he was sitting there with the name of the one who was supposed to call in front of him. They had known for a few short minutes, and it was as if Louise Keijser sensed it.
“I’m calling about Helene Andersen,” she said.
“Where are you calling from?” Winter asked.
“Helsingborg. I spoke to someone from the police down here and they said that I should contact you.”
“Yes. We’ve just been informed about that.”
“I am-or was-her foster mother. One of them, I should say.”
“Just talk about yourself,” Winter said. “You recognized Helene Andersen?”
“Yes.”
“In what way?”
“Well. I saw the photograph in the
“When was the last time you saw Helene?”
“Oh, it was many years ago.”
“Many years ago? How many?”
“We haven’t had any contact in… It must have been, let’s see… It was long before Johannes died-that’s my husband. Helene moved away from here some twelve years ago. I’ve got a record of it here somewhere. I can look it up.”
“But you recognized her from the pictures in the newspaper?”
“Well, I didn’t know that she had a girl. They looked so alike in the pictures.”
“I would like for you to come in to see us, Mrs. Keijser. Could you do that?”
“Come up there? Travel to Gothenburg, you mean?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I’m getting along in years, but of course I can take the train, if need be.”
Winter eyed his watch. “It’s still early. We could book you on a train and call and let you know. We’ll meet you at the station and can arrange for you to spend the night in a hotel.”
“I have friends in Gothenburg.”
“Whichever you prefer, Mrs. Keijser.”
Helene had been placed in three different foster homes. As far as he knew, she’d never been adopted by anyone. She spent a brief period at an orphanage when she was four, after which she was at Sahlgrenska Hospital in Gothenburg, critically ill with pneumonia. She’d been left on a couch in an empty waiting room by some unknown person. No message. Just the little girl, who suddenly cried out in her delirium.
All this he now knew. The girl had been mute for weeks, and it had taken time before they were able to identify her as Helene Dellmar. Her mother’s name was Brigitta Dellmar.
The woman had by then been missing from her home for three weeks.
She had lived alone with her daughter, Helene.
The apartment was at Frolunda Square.
It had had thirteen tenants since then.
Brigitta Dellmar was known to the police. She was arrested in 1968 in connection with a fraud ring but had been released for lack of evidence. She had been pregnant. Her name was mentioned in connection with the robbery of a branch of Handelsbanken in Jonkoping in 1971, but she had only been questioned regarding her relationship to one of the men involved. He’d served four years for another robbery, but the police had been
